The Southern Africa Signature Leadership Journey 2025

This 12-month, fully-funded program empowers women to explore their authentic leadership through vulnerability and self-reflection. Participants will build inclusive and diverse networks that foster belonging, learn strategies to enhance their voice, presence, and influence, and receive support from peers, mentors, and coaches.

The Signature Leadership Journey is a transformative learning experience that brings together mid- to senior-career women from various disciplines and sectors in health. It aims to instill the mindset shift needed to address the complex challenges of global public health issues today.

This program is particularly suited for women leaders who value diversity, equity, and inclusion; who recognise the importance of integrating diverse perspectives into policy and practice; and who are eager to expand their leadership presence and influence while paying it forward to others in their organisations.

Focus Areas

• Leader Identity: Projects a clear sense of self, including awareness and monitoring of the components that drive a leader’s intent, behaviors, and impact on others.
• Confidence and Courage: Demonstrates inner strength and reliance on one’s personal capabilities.
• Relationship Building: Applies an inclusive and discerning approach to developing new and existing relationships.
• Developing Others: Actively works to build the capacity of others by providing guidance and support, and fostering a healthy team dynamic in a concerted effort to grow the pipeline of diverse leaders in health.
• Ecosystem Mindset: Cultivates a broad vision, embraces transformational thinking and applies cultural intelligence in decision making.
• Leader Agility: Envisions the big picture and leads change processes with
• Resilience: Maintains the energy and mindset to lead as the best version of one’s self. discernment and versatility.
• Leadership Presence: Recognized as a respected and trusted leader in the organization. Stays informed of one’s own reputation by soliciting feedback from a variety of stakeholders.

Thematic Areas

• Centering women and girls in health
• Catalyzing institutional change
• Optimizing pathways to leadership
• Building integrated & resilient health systems

Framework

• Authentic Leadership: is discovered through a lifelong exploration of one’s self and purpose while building on awareness of and trust in one’s abilities.
• Inclusive Leadership: encourages an intentional exploration of power and privilege to reveal unconscious biases or systemic prejudices.
• Impactful Leadership: inspires gender equality and leads to better health through a crystalized understanding of the power of one’s leadership and the critical importance of developing others for greater impact.
• Strategic Leadership: is rooted in an understanding of one’s influence and how to leverage it to capture collective energy and facilitate change within institutions and the global health community.

Rules

• It should focus on improving outcomes at the intersection of health and gender equality, or take a gendered lens on a global health issue
• It should leverage your leadership skills
• It should be within your scope of control or influence, but also stretch you beyond your day-to-day work requirements
• You should be passionate about it

Eligibility Criteria

• You are eligible for consideration if you meet all of the following criteria:
  • Identify as a woman
  • Mid-Career Leader: has 10-25 years of work experience and or identifies as someone in mid-career in their institutions
  • Are a citizen who resides and works within the following 10 countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
  • Work in a role that focuses on public health policy, practice, and or research (your work and partnerships serve populations at the national level in your country of residence or Southern Africa regional level and may include practicing public health in hospitals and health centers, producing research and innovation, creating or implementing policy, and managing teams departments or projects grants.)
  • Demonstrate fluency and confidence in both written and verbal English communications.

For more information, visit Womenlift Health.